Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-338522 discloses a vehicle door having a black garnish. The garnish covers a vertical sash arranged between a front door glass and a rear door glass of the vehicle. The front door glass, the rear door glass, and the black garnish bring about an integral appearance of the vehicle, which is continuous from the front of the vehicle to the rear.
As a structure for improving the appearance of the vehicle without employing a garnish, a vertical sash may be painted black or a black tape may be applied to the vertical sash. However, high skills are necessary to finish a painted surface of the vertical sash or apply the black tape accurately at a predetermined position. In contrast, the garnish is attached to the vehicle inexpensively without requiring such high skills.
FIGS. 9(a), 9(b), and 9(c) show three types of garnish mounting structures disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-338522. In these garnish mounting structures, a garnish 130 is mounted on an outer surface of a vertical sash portion 12b. The garnish 130 illustrated in FIG. 9(a) is engaged with the vertical sash portion 12b in such a manner as to wrap around the front and rear edges of the vertical sash portion 12b. The garnish 130 shown in FIG. 9(b) has an engagement projection inserted in a mounting hole formed in the vertical sash portion 12b. The garnish 130 illustrated in FIG. 9(c) has engagement portions engaged with a pair of stud members 131, which are welded to the vertical sash portion 12b. The stud members 131 are 5 spaced apart in the vertical direction.
However, since the garnish 130 of FIG. 9(a) wraps around the edges of the vertical sash portion 12b from outside, the dimension of the garnish 130 in the front-and-rear direction of the vehicle is greater than the corresponding dimension of the vertical sash portion 12b. This structure reduces the surface area of the corresponding window of the vehicle. In other words, the design of the appearance of the vehicle is restricted disadvantageously. The vertical sash portion 12b of FIG. 9(b) is formed by bending a plate material in a layered manner. In the drawing, the sign x represents the welded portion. Specifically, a mounting hole is formed in one of the layered portions of the plate material. The other layered portion of the plate material covers the hole so that the hole is invisible from the occupants of the vehicle. However, since the vertical sash portion 12b of FIG. 9(b) includes a great amount of plate material, the vertical sash portion 12b is heavy. In the vertical sash portion 12b shown in FIG. 9(c), the stud members 131 are expensive to add and difficult to ensure position accuracies when the stud members 131 are welded to the vertical sash portion 12b. Accordingly, the mounting positions of the garnish 130 on the vertical sash portion 12b tend to be offset, which may lower the appearance quality of the vehicle.